Canadian Academy General Intranet: Meeting 2_7

Next Meeting Items

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To do

Rhonda - get a server for PowerSchool.
Rhonda - start the registration process for Murray to attend PowerSchool University.
Rhonda, Steve, Jon meet to discuss CourseForum (and photo attachments) in the elementary.
Contact Steve, if you have specific comments about the newest version of CourseForum.
Rhonda talk to Dr. Kite about new color printer, then notify faculty of its use.
Rhonda and Murray talk about the online data storage capabilities in Moodle.
Rhonda form a sub-committee to discuss online datastorage for students and teachers.
Rhonda talk to Dr. Kite about budget proposals for next year and for possibly options for the next 2-5 years. This should include administration needs.
Rhonda finalize job descriptions and rubrics for individual, then group discussion.

Minutes

Updates
1. PowerSchool Server -- The PowerSchool server configuration is very specific and out-of-date with modern servers. We need to purchase a refurbished G5 and are having difficulty finding one. We will continue to look. Rhonda will contact Apple to see if they can help locate or to provide one.
2. PowerSchool University - Murray will attend. Rhonda will start the arrangements
3. Follett training - online (Feb 15 and 29) and onsite (March 3-5 for 6 people). The records from Library Pro have been sent. Next we will send patron information.
4. CourseForum update - cost and size - Rhonda, Jon, and Steve will meet to discuss the attachment of photos to CourseForum. Our CourseForum licences need to be updated in March. We are looking at having them host our CourseForum site. The hosting cost is very low, except for the photo attachments issue. The newest version of CourseForum is very awkward to use with lists. if you have had problems, send a summary to Steve, so he can contact the developer.
5. Job Descriptions - "final version" with rubrics coming soon
6. Tech 2 and iTrolley clone machines - Todd has talked to David H about some of the cloning issues. Todd is working on a Tech 2 clone. Rhonda will look at it to see if additional changed need to be made for Tech 3. It would be useful to have a single clone for both labs. They will work on it together.
7. Color Printer placement - A new color printer has been placed in the college library. Rhonda will talk to Dr. Kite about what he wants for guidelines for use of the printer and then will send out a notice to all faculty.
8. Moodle - pros/cons -- Rhonda found when she was managing her classes from the States, that Moodle worked for the most part. There were some issues with groups in forums. We'll have to take a look at (and try to solve) the problems as we find them. As we are using it, Moodle works well for online text communication, but we need to have online data storage for students. Teachers need to have individual teacher or course drop boxes available from both on and offsite use. Murray has used Moodle for online data storage for students. Rhonda and Murray will talk about this later. We will need a sub-committee formed to discuss and to iron-out student and teacher online storage facilities. Tood has training material for Moodle ready to go, so he could provide an inservice for it. We recognize teachers need training before students receive training, so teachers begin to understand the possible options for use. The Wednesday afternoons next year will be useful to get Moodle training scheduled.
Budget
1. Funds for this year (2007-2008 budget)
  1. We have enough left to purchase 24 iMacs (20" 2.0 250GB 2GB). These will be for Tech 1. Rhonda will process the order.
  2. We also still need to purchase a refurbished server for PowerSchool.
  3. We need order at least 19 new MacBooks for new teachers coming in 2008-2009. These won't be ordered until late May.
  4. The remaining funds will be used to purchase MacBooks for the library (from 4-6 computers.) These can be ordered after we get the final cost for the PowerSchool server.
  5. Darrick needs to order software for the theater computers. Rhonda said he should put in a purchase order request stating the software titles, number of licenses needed, and estimated costs. Rhonda can order the software with educational prices and can get FBC to ship to Japan.
2. Proposed cycle for next 4 years. We discussed several options for which computers should be purchased for which areas. We want to ask the school board to commit to a replacement cycle. We discussed when and how we could move to having students supplying their own laptop for school use. We would like to target 2009-2010 as the year we start the program, possibly beginning with middle school students. Rhonda will get a proposal to Dr. Kite and will also talk to him about an administration replacement cycle. We will need to train teachers for 1-computer/1-student instruction. We may need to look for conferences to attend for our own training.
3. Laptop for Teacher change - not discussed
Reports
1. Sonny (see below)
2. Dave: No hardware/network issues other than replacing Tech One Computers.
3. Darrick (not submitted)

Sonny's To Do

check insurance claims with Miyuki (done, meeting w/insurance co. next week)
place a student desktop in S104 abeek (done)
place a student desktop in N209 sandyo (done)
install Sibelius on Tech 2 or 3 computers (this week)
place HP Color 4700 in MS/HS Office (done)
place HP 4250 in Tech 1 (pending decision)
give Kaho MacBook EQ3084 (today or tomorrow)

Sonny's report

Tech 1 HP 4200 printer 'died' Tuesday. Was showing persistent "DOWNLD FILE" message on startup but did not respond normally to any command. Then it stopped showing anything on LCD display. None of indicator lights works. No response to utility access via network. I'm asking printer guru Bob Simon. Unit replaced with old HP 4350 formerly in Tech 3 (fuser broke, but later repaired).
InFocuses (or -Foci?) dying en masse. We lost 2 earlier this year. Bob Hengal's died in December. Jay's died last week, and Dave Ferguson's died this week. These are all 2-3 year-old X1/X2 models. We don't fix these because (a) spare bulbs cost almost as much as new projectors, and (b) lack of InFocus agent in Japan makes repairs very difficult. All filled with new BenQ replacements.
iBook relocations: 22 ex-teacher iBooks collected... 20 units placed in Elem iTrolleys 2-3-4, filling empty slots and replacing old G3 iBooks. No more clamshells and G3 iBooks in Elementary iTrolleys. 1 unit given back to teacher because new MacBook was damaged in a week. 1 unit set aside for MS/HS clone master for Dave's 2008-09 clone system. 14 G3 iBooks removed from Elem iTrolleys. Used 1 unit in ELAC-J for Susanne Lindop's old Elementary software. 13 more in Sonny's area. Must decide where to use these.
iBook repair: Sebastien's iBook G4 had a defective Combo Drive, so I changed it with one from a dead iBook.
More iBook repairs: I fixed 2 dead iBook G4s with crashed HDDs this week, using parts from other dead units. They are back in circulation, as backup and loaner units for now.
Document scanner in Library? Brian McEwen and Yuka Watanabe requested special arrangements to give students access to ScanSnap document scanners. Some students came directly to Tech 3 and used the scanner. How to deal with this increasing demand. How about one in Library? We must buy the scanner from U.S. Japanese version works only with Windows and does not come with English version software.
Kaho's MacBook (damaged LCD) will be Sonny's desktop. I'm in the process of setting up Kaho's MacBook EQ3090 with an external flat screen, to replace my old desktop. eMac G4/1.25G will be freed up by the end of the week, for use in lab or classroom.
Printer placements (HP Color LaserJet 4700, HP LaserJet 4250)
Insurance woes: Kaho's new MacBook EQ3090 was damaged and lost before the unit was added to the insurance contract. I was responsible to process it but I was too slow this time. Will make a better system and do better in the future. I don't know what this insurance contract is like and how it works. Rhonda and I will attend a meeting with the people next week and I hope to have a better grasp of the contract, and how new units should be communicated to whom, so they are covered as soon as we buy them.
Past insurance claims: EQ2585 (iBook G4, bought Oct 2004, damaged Dec 2006) should be covered. Miyuki is checking what happened to our claim. EQ2852 (iBook G4, bought May 2006, damaged Dec 2006) missed the insurance because it was too short-lived: we bought it after a list was submitted, and it was lost before the next list. EQ2950 (MacBook, bought May 2007, lost Aug 2007) should be insured. Miyuki will check what happed.

Posted at Feb 06/2008 02:25PM:
[Steve] DNS Hosting?

Posted at Feb 07/2008 10:59AM by [rcarrier]:
Rhonda added a DNS hosting item to the budget proposal for off-site server list